In this June 6, 2013, photo, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, joined by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, left, addresses Attorney General Eric Holder as he testifies at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee as lawmakers examine the budget for the Justice Department, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Revelations of massive government collections of Americans phone and email records have reinvigorated an odd-couple political alliance of the far left and right. “This is a marginal national security group within our party,” Graham said of those who call the government snooping unwarranted or unconstitutional. “I just don t see how anybody gets elected as a Republican” by running to the “left of Obama on national security,” said Graham, one of the Senate s most hawkish members. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

While many politicians have called for the government to rein in its spying on Americans’ internet and phone activities, others have defended the practices as necessary to protect our safety.

“In World War II, the mentality of the public was that our whole way of life was at risk, we’re all in,” Graham told reporters. “We censored the mail. When you wrote a letter overseas, it got censored. When a letter was written back from the battlefield to home, they looked at what was in the letter to make sure they were not tipping off the enemy.

“If I thought censoring the mail was necessary, I would suggest it, but I don’t think it is.”

Raising further questions about how the United States lived up to its own principles in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, a nonpartisan panel has declared it “indisputable” that the United States tortured terrorism detainees after the 2001 attacks.

The 11-member panel, headed by former Republican U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson and former U.S. Rep. James Jones, a Democrat, also said the country’s “highest officials bear some responsibility for allowing and contributing the spread of torture,” according to Politico.

“…There is little doubt that some U.S. personnel committed brutal acts against captives, as have armies and governments throughout history,” the panel concluded in a 577-page report. “But there is no evidence there had ever before been the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after September 11, directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody.”

The report examined incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan, at Guantanamo Bay and at the CIA’s so-called black sites around the world. The panel did not have a problem concluding that waterboarding and other known practices the U.S. used were torture techniques, saying that prolonging the debate over this could just mean the U.S. would do it again in the future.

Retired Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha is seen on stage during the White House ceremony. (Associated Press, Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

By all accounts, the White House ceremony in which Fort Carson veteran Clinton Romesha was awarded the Medal of Honor was a moving one.

Romesha, who has retired from the Army, was honored for helping to “defend the indefensible” in a marathon firefight in Afghanistan in which 53 Army troops repelled more than 300 Taliban fighters.

Eight U.S. soldiers lost their lives in the battle, and Romesha suffered shrapnel wounds to his shoulder, arms and neck as he defended the remote outpost.

This is what the Colorado Springs Gazette said about Romesha’s actions:

He killed more than 10 Taliban fighters that day using whatever weapons he could find in the burning outpost deep in Nuristan province, Afghanistan, his citation said.

He fired his own rifle, an M4. He used an MK-48, a machine gun. He picked up a Dragunov — a sniper rifle used by the Afghan National Army —and later hurled hand grenades at attacking insurgents.

And, he called in airstrikes that killed 30 Taliban fighters, the citation said.

He did nearly all of that after suffering shrapnel wounds to his shoulder, arm and neck — wounds Romesha didn’t acknowledge until another soldier spoke up. Some of the shrapnel needed to be pulled from his neck.

He risked further injury by running into raining gunfire to recover his fallen comrades.

A Colorado Springs doctor who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan was rescued — thank goodness.

Tragically, Nicolas D. Checque, one of the Navy Seals who was on the rescue mission was killed. We offer our condolences to his family.

SEAL Team Six, elite Navy commandos, rescued Dr. Dilip Joseph, a medical adviser for the nonprofit Morningstar Development. Joseph and two other relief staffers were on their way back from visiting a rural clinic when they were kidnapped.

Joseph was not injured and reportedly will return home soon thanks to the bravery of the special operations forces who freed him from the Taliban.

Comments Off on Day’s Best: Rescue of Colorado Springs doctor in Afghanistan

My first presidential vote was for George McGovern, who died over the weekend at 90. Forty years later, I am still comfortable with my vote for the left-wing Democrat.

True, McGovern’s economic policies were atrocious, although I didn’t recognize it at the time. And his steadfast insistence on blaming the West as much as the Soviet Union for the Cold War — while downplaying the great evil of communism — betrayed a moral blind spot that was disappointing coming from a B-24 pilot who so bravely fought the Nazis.

Still, his bold opposition to the Vietnam War and his 1972 slogan “Come Home, America,” were themes that I found attractive then and still do to this day. McGovern’s general decency and relative lack of politically motivated phoniness also stood up well through the years.

It may be hard to believe, but the U.S. spends more today (in constant dollars) on defense and veterans programs than we did during McGovern’s political prime. And we still have troops stationed at a dizzying array of facilities spanning the globe.

Given the experience of the past decade – roughly 5,000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq and 2,000 in Afghanistan, along with 48,000 wounded in both wars, with relatively little to show for the sacrifice — that 1972 slogan is sounding as relevant as it ever did.

Over the years I’ve sometimes been asked by supporters of Ron Paul why I don’t take him more seriously despite my own libertarian leanings on many issues. One of the reasons was on display in Monday’s GOP debate in Florida, namely Paul’s penchant for blaming the U.S. for the murderous hostility of Islamic jihadists.

It’s one thing to have opposed U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, or to call for a significantly smaller military budget. Fine. But it’s despicable to assert, as Paul did Monday night, that “we’re under great threat because we occupy so many countries” (my emphasis), as if that were a useful explanation for 9/11. “We’re in 130 countries,” he added. “… if we think that we can do that and not have retaliation, we’re kidding ourselves.”

Paul went on to recite Osama bin Laden‘s stated reasons for terror attacks (before retreating somewhat under a barrage of boos), and compared the U.S. with China. “We have to be honest with ourselves,” he said. “What would we do if another country, say, China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?”

In Paul’s view, apparently, every foreign intervention is equally vile, no matter who the intervening country might support or what that country’s motives might be. His moral equivalence is ugly.

During the recent Denver mayoral race, I was quite skeptical of eventual winner Michael Hancock‘s claim that “promoting localized food
production and distribution networks will create thousands of new
jobs for Denver citizens.” Local agricultural self-sufficiency may be an admirable thing, but only if you aspire to return to the 18th century and to a much less interesting diet.

Yet such is the prestige of the “locavore” movement, which promotes consumption of food from local farms, that opponent Chris Romer never took on Hancock’s dubious claims. If he’d tried, it probably would have backfired on him. These days, you can spout almost any nonsense on behalf of “sustainable” local farming and get away with it.

Consider an oped in Monday’s New York Times by Patricia McArdle, a former State Department adviser in Afghanistan. While she has a number of interesting criticisms of U.S. development policy in that nation, she begins her piece with a stunningly obtuse portrayal of a dirt-poor agricultural economy.

Wednesday night’s debate was thoroughly ridiculous. The candidates trotted out their old standby scare tactics: God, guns and gays, with the new addition of illegal immigration.

We heard very little, if anything, about solutions to the disastrous state of the economy and the destruction of the middle class; the health care crisis; the energy crisis; our failing educational system; job loss due to outsourcing, etc. Read more…

In many European countries it is illegal to deny the holocaust. But in Turkey, denying the Armenian Genocide is official government policy. You can be murdered for even discussing it, e.g. journalist Hrant Dink. Many Turks probably really think that there wasn’t Armenian Genocide, since that has been the sanctioned story for so long. But others know the truth and still
conspire to cover this up. We can’t let them rewrite history. Read more…

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.

To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

Posts by Category

Posts by Category

Idea Log Archives

Idea Log Archives

About The Idea Log

The idea log The Denver Post editorial board shares commentary and opinion on issues of interest to Coloradans.